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Letter to the editor: Ribble’s response to recent letter was shameful

Posted on Nov 29, 2013 at 6:53 a.m.

By Jim Chase, Bismarck

Republican U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble, R-Wis., recently responded to an Oct. 28 letter to the editor written by Rande Zander of Mandan, N.D., concerning Rep. Kevin Cramer’s support of Ribble’s proposals to fix Social Security. In his rebuttal, he accused Zander of “egregious falsehoods” and described his letter as being “an outrageous attempt to mislead.”

Ribble, in fact, wrote two letters to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on Oct. 8; one was signed by Cramer and 50 other House Republicans and one was signed by Ribble alone. He made a point of the fact that the letter Cramer had signed didn’t actually list the specific cuts he was proposing, although his personal letter to Boehner did. Isn’t that a clever trick? Ribble wrote one letter saying “Here’s how we can gut Social Security,” then he wrote another that included no specifics and got 50 Republicans to sign it.

Ribble’s response was a dramatic overreaction that most folks can see right through, but his personal attack on Zander was shameful. I’ll vote to remove Cramer from office next November. I just wish I could do the same for Ribble.